Systems designed to locate and track a mobile target in a venue are used in retail, factory, and warehouse environments for product tracking, product identification, inventory control, and theft detection/prevention. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is commonly used in these systems to facilitate locationing and tracking. RFID transceivers are positioned throughout a venue, such as in overhead locations, and operated to identify RFID tags on targets moving throughout the venue. The RFID transceivers are connected to a network host computer or server. The specific location of any particular RFID-tagged product in the venue is typically determined by having the host computer process the payloads and capture data from a plurality of the readers and using triangulation/trilateration techniques.
In some environments, location and tracking systems use video surveillance by having video cameras positioned throughout the venue to capture video streams of images from within the venue. For example, overhead wide-angle cameras are used to stream wide-angle or ultra-wide angle video of respective portions of the venue. These wide-angle video cameras are desired for their ability to cover large areas, but they are disadvantageous when surveillance personnel wants to concentrate on a particular location or on a particular moving target. Wide-angle video streams, for example, can capture large portions of a venue, requiring fewer wide-angle cameras as a result. But such systems are not capable of sufficiently targeting a particular target area, known as a zone of interest (ZOI), and, as such, such systems are not capable of sufficiently identifying, with video images, items of interest in those ZOI. The limitations of such wide-angle video camera systems are narrowed even further when trying to track multiple targets moving at the same time within a venue. Such systems are not equipped to provide individualized target tracking. Further still, the bandwidth demands of wide-angle cameras can be overwhelming on network communication infrastructure, as the size of the venue scales up. There is a need for an improved locationing system capable of tracking targets moving within a venue.